Thursday, April 10, 2014

Orange Marmalade Loaf Bread (17 Hour Preferment Dough)

This Orange Marmalade Loaf Bread was baked over the weekend before I baked my Rice Cooker Caramel Banana Cake, but I was so excited about the banana cake that I almost forgot to upload this.It has been a while since I last baked bread again. This is the first time I use my bread machine this year. I should attempt to re-start my "engine" for bread-making as I think I bake far too many cakes than breads, and my hubby complains all the time. Just a quick intro on how this bread came about, this bread was baked way back in Oct 2010 when I first started out on bread-baking, I did "tandem baking" with PlumLeaf on 1 or 2 occasions back then and we had lots of fun testing each other's recipe. Then recently when I was browsing through my old postings, I came across this bread recipe again, and I started thinking about Plumleaf and wondered how she was doing. It's been a while since she last updated her blog in Mar 2013. I wish she can return to baking soon! :)

Strange enough, as if she could read my mind, she suddenly appeared on my facebook page and said she recently attempted a rice cooker cake in Hong Kong! Maybe her eyelids were twitching when I was thinking about her? ;p

What is unique about this bread is that the preferment dough takes 17 hours, and is much bigger than the main dough in terms of weight. Usually the dough starter is just a small percentage of the main dough.

If you pop over to my previous post, you can see the difference in crust. That was because I didn't own any pullman loaf tin back then, so it was baked in a 30x15x10 loaf tin without lid. This time round, I baked the bread in a small pullman loaf tin for 35 min @ 180 degrees celsius, then I removed the lid and baked an additional 3 min on the upper shelf to brown the crust.I had some problems with instant yeast last time and I encountered exactly the same problem this time. Turned out that if you use instant yeast, the amount of the instant yeast (after doing a weight conversion from fresh yeast to instant yeast) will take a long time for the bread to rise. Hence I suggest increasing the instant yeast from 0.35 tsp to 1 tsp for the main dough to make it rise faster and taller.Recipe adapted from my previous post, reproduced here for easy reference.

Step 1 : Prepare the preferment dough half a day or one day in advance, preferably 17 hours ahead. Dissolve the yeast in water. Add bread flour, sea salt, skim milk powder and knead until soft. Cover the dough in cling wrap. Refrigerate to let it prove for 17 hours. (I used the bread machine to knead for 40 min and I let it prove overnight for 15 hours)

Step 4 : Knead all ingredients of dough together, including the orange marmalade and grated zest (but except the butter). Add preferment dough piece by piece. Knead after each addition until soft and smooth. Add butter. Knead until stretchable consistency. Put the dough into a big bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it prove for about 25-30 minutes.

Step 5 : Divide the dough into six small equal portions. Flatten each portion with your hands to drive the air out. Flatten the dough into a rectangle shape with the heel of your hand, and then starting at the top, roll the short end up tightly on itself like a swiss-roll, then cover with cling wrap. Set aside to rest for about 20 minutes, or until doubled in volume.

Step 6 : Flatten each piece of dough with your hands to drive the air out. Roll each out into a rectangular sheet with a rolling pin. Fold about 2cm from both sides towards the centre and roll it out again. Roll the dough up (the width should be the same as the loaf tin) and put them into the mould. Cover with cling wrap.

Step 7 : Let it prove for about 40-45 minutes or until the dough has risen to 80% of the depth of the loaf tin. Close the lid. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170-180 deg C for about 30-35 minutes. (I let it prove for >1 hour and I baked it in the lower half of the oven at 180C for 35 minutes. The loaf measured about 685g just before popping into the oven and was baked in a pullman loaf tin. After 35 min, I removed the lid of the pullman loaf tin and moved it to the upper shelf to brown the crust for extra 3 min.)

Verdict : So what is the verdict? I find this bread very soft and moist, in fact too soft, moist and sweet for my liking. My palate is now used to the belgian bread which is harder in nature, but my 2 year old little daughter loved this bread and she had it one piece after another. :)

When you get the preferment dough out from fridge, does it need to be cool down to room temp or can use it straight away?

I have not try to use the orange marmalade within the ingredients, but I had squeeze orange juice and used it in place of water/milk and the loaf did taste abit of the orangish (is there such a word? well...) taste

(depend on the orange used, I tried two times and used different orange 'brand', one got more orangish taste than the other)

Hi Wendy,I didn't cool it down, but maybe I should. This bread took a long time to rise, I suspect it could be the instant yeast amount was calculated wrongly, but could also be because I took the preferment dough straight from the fridge.

Wendy,It doesn't necessarily take more time than Alex goh's sweet bread dough, you can proof for 12 hrs instead of 17hrs. The bread can stay soft and moist at room temp (20 degrees) for at least 3 days, but because this bread is very moist to the extent of being "damp" to the touch, I think it will become mouldy very soon if you don't put it in the fridge considering Singapore's hot and humid weather.

Hi Miss B-How funny you were visiting the site and then they posted on FB:)) Maybe their eyes were twitching! I know I'm in love with this bread. It's so lovely and fluffy! Thanks for baking with us in April! Check out our May challenge we just posted...see you soon!

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